Dad's First Chemo Treatment

My dad had his first chemo treatment on Wednesday. We had a nice, relaxing day at the hospital. We arrived at Schumpert around 8 (I ran a little late picking him up!) and had blood work, a chemo class, and a tour of the facility. We were excited to learn that Dad would have an actual bedroom for his chemo since it takes so long. Others have their chemo out in a big room along with 20 other people. We were glad to have a regular room. Basically Dad just read, watched TV, slept, ate, and visited. He had 1 hour of fluids, 30 minutes of nausea medicine, 1 hour of chemo, and 2 more hours of fluids. Cisplatin is a very strong chemo drug, so keeping him on lots of fluids is key...they say. It was a low key day and pretty relaxing. We were worried that he was going to be sick, but he had no side effects during the treatment. I enjoyed myself by sitting in the recliner with my feet up. I got to catch up on blogging and facebook. Neil and Carolyn both stopped by for visits. Neil brought me some lunch and chatted for a bit. Carolyn stopped by in between surgeries and then stayed until the end of the treatment at 4pm.

Here is the patient:

He was actually sitting up eating, but I got him to lie back down and pretend to read for the picture. Dad is the only person I know that puts on regular clothes to go to the hospital. I sure had my cotton sweats on. But, he always looks nice!

All of the nurses and volunteers were so nice and helpful. They even have a little room with snacks and drinks for the patients. Dad is a huge fan of the grape juice and graham crackers! I am, too! Neil said I was way too impressed with the snack room! All in all, it was a nice, relaxing day. Although we wish we would have been doing something different, it went better than we expected.

The next day, Dad had his feeding tube placed. This was a 20 minute surgery that went very well. He does not have to use it until he wants to. He was not excited that it was a little more bulky than they let on...but if it keeps him healthy...we are all for it!